


The Last Hope: A Star Wars Story

by Starkulous



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: AU from the elevator scene in tlj, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Ghost(s), Lightsabers, how much a kiss can change, it's an idea, kissing!, making it up as I go, tags to be updated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23233501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starkulous/pseuds/Starkulous
Summary: “Rey,” he pleaded, “Don’t do this.”Her form seemed to take his disapproval to heart, but it did less to change her mind. She resolutely got back on her feet and wordlessly held out his father’s lightsaber to him, as she had done just days ago when she first saw him.It was an invitation. A challenge. An appeal to the legendary Luke Skywalker to rejoin the Resistance and win this never ending war for them.He looked down in defeat. He couldn't change her mind. He was done fighting.She understood.“Then he is our last hope.”...It was the same tale, a struggle between the light and the dark that rhymed. The sonnet twisted by time nears its end as a dyad seeks the meaning of balance. The Galaxy get's caught up in the symphony of this ballad as it did ever before.One final verse is left to perform, and the legacy of a thousand generations is passed to the dawning light that clings to her last hope, and the story lives on forever.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Rey, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Padmé Amidala & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Padmé Amidala & Rey, Rey & Anakin Skywalker, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	The Last Hope: A Star Wars Story

“This is not going to go the way you think!” 

Rey knelt to clutch his arm, “It is” she replied with conviction, trying to make him understand. “Just now, when we touched hands...I _saw_ his future. As solid as I’m seeing you!” 

He looked at her in remorse, already knowing where this conversation was heading. 

“If I go to him, Ben Solo _will_ turn.” 

She was trying to redeem him, his nephew, who’s heart had been turned by that monster for the better part of the last 20 years. She was so certain, unfoundedly convinced that he would return to light and they would take down the Supreme Leader. It was a baseless whim, most likely to get this young girl full of hope and ideals _killed_.

“Rey,” he pleaded, “Don’t do this.” 

Her form seemed to take his disapproval to heart, but it did less to change her mind. She resolutely got back on her feet and wordlessly held out his father’s lightsaber to him, as she had done just days ago when she first saw him.

It was an invitation. A challenge. An appeal to the legendary Luke Skywalker to rejoin the Resistance and win this never ending war for them.

He looked down in defeat. He couldn't change her mind. He was done fighting. 

She understood.

“Then he is our last hope.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Anxious wouldn’t be a word that could be used frequently to describe the Sith apprentice, Kylo Ren.

However, at the moment, Ben Solo was _anxious_. 

He could sense Rey steadily approaching the _Supremacy_. And with every second that passed, he had lesser time to formulate a plan that would rid them of Snoke and...well, keep her safe.

His thoughts traitorously wandered in a hundred different directions. Why did he care for her? Why did he so terribly relate to her loneliness even after she cut open his face and left him for the dead? Why was he overcome with this overwhelming urge to protect her? The pull to the light was so _strong_ , but his ardent soul dripped with darkness that hollered at him to regain the Supreme Leader’s faith by executing her. Kriff, he was getting distracted-

_Bring her to me._

When he first heard Snoke’s voice in his head as a boy, a cold, sharp pain shot through his cerebrum that ached for hours, leaving him to whimper and scream in agony in his mother’s arms. Years later, he has grown accustomed to constantly having a dull ache leave his temples throbbing as this was the Supreme Leader’s preferred method of communication . 

He reached out to Rey’s signature in the force, it was bright as ever and even from this distance it’s warmth thawed the frozen pain in his head. Briefly, he wasted a few precious moments basking in her glow. It was healing. 

But, that lucrative trance was broken as soon as he registered his master’s orders. Of course he sensed her in the force. Damn that Skywalker! He didn’t even show her how to cloak her imprint.

Ben followed her force imprint that seemed to near the lower hangar bay. The momentary peace was short found, for he retreated to his primary line of thought. 

When they touched hands, he saw flashes. A force vision. Her past and future blended together and invaded his mind from the other end of the galaxy. He saw a darker version of this woman of immeasurable light, an unafraid woman that wielded a sith saberstaff and ruled the galaxy by his side on a throne. But he also saw a little girl, with her three signature buns, being hurriedly comforted by an older man and woman as she was sold to that croulet he saw earlier in her memories on starkiller. They briefly haggled with it over caskets of what seemed to be liquor in exchange for her being. 

He would tell her the truth; she would have to accept it. Then, they would kill Snoke and rule the galaxy. That would work, right?

The light emanating was stronger than ever, enough for him to stop a few seconds outside the hangar and ponder, if this creature of goodness could ever be persuaded to trust him, trust the dark. Could the visions be misleading? 

Either way, he arrived just in time to intercept the docking of an escape pod (unmistakably from his father’s old ship. He didn’t doubt it still had ‘Please return to Han Solo’ scrawled on it’s back).

The small window of transparisteel slid away to reveal _her_ , his Rey of light.

Even as she was lying at the mercy of the enemy, her face radiated confidence, and hope.

It vaguely reminded him of his mother.

That thought alone was enough for him to snap back to the sobering reality of the situation. She was Resistance, he was First Order. Logically, he knew she practically signed her death warrant by coming here with no backup, contingency plan and no ammunation other than a 70 year old lightsaber. 

  
  


But... _he didn’t want her to die_.

He grimaced, and signalled the stormtroopers to escort her with the force restraints.

Sensing her slight disappointment through the bond, he sighed internally. What did she think was going to happen? He would gallantly kill the guards and run away with her on some shuttle to the rock where that murderous Skywalker was hiding and be a light incarnate that taught snot nosed brats how to meditate? 

He was sure that his vision would come to pass. But the longer he spent in her brightness, he felt doubt and darkness wreck his volatile resolve. Maybe it was a trick, another one of his master’s ‘test’s’. If he failed, it would earn him bouts of force lightning so strong he would probably end in the bacta tank for a week, and Snoke would kill Rey.

If he succeeded... Well, if he killed Rey, it would mean that he would have to quash the growing compassion that fed the light within himself, further slipping into an endless abyss of darkness.

Either way, Rey would die. 

He bit his lip in frustration.

The squadron of troopers accompanying her ushered her into the turbolift as he punched the access code to the throne room. For someone presumably being marched to execution, she seemed oddly calm. Unlike his own turbulent, perturbed mind, Rey held conviction in every inch of her body and soul.

  
  


“You don’t have to do this.” she spoke with eerie calmness, her voice devoid of the uneasy desperation one would expect from a captive.

“I feel the conflict in you,” she continued, turning to face him, “It’s tearing you apart.”

He knew it was. Snoke knew. He had given _so much_ of himself to the darkness. But the light still called him. If he did Snoke’s bidding like the slave he played to the darkness, it was possible that he would fall apart instead of becoming the dark sith his master envisioned. Just like with his father.

Turning to the light would be fruitless, Luke had passed the judgement on his ability to remain untainted long before he made this choice.

Too dark to be a Jedi, too light to be a complete Sith. But he could still appease one of his Masters.

“Ben,” Rey said, pausing to move closer to him. To see him. She _saw_ him. Ben Solo. 

“When we touched hands I saw your future. Just the shape of it, but _solid_ and _clear_.” 

He did, he did too! Did she see what he saw? Emperor and Empress of the dark, or minions of his master?

“You will not bow before Snoke.” she declared fervently, as if sensing his incertitude and fear.

Rey came closer, trying to gauge his reaction. “You’ll turn.”

_No_.

He _couldn’t_. Not after everything that’s happened...everything he has done.

“I’ll help you” she whispered, gazing into his eyes. He knew he should tell her that their visions were different and that neither could be correct too. 

But he couldn’t, for the intent tenacity mirrored in her eyes, the way she looked at him and actually saw him through the cracks in his mask created by Han Solo, knowing that she would not die today, like she _trusted_ him to do her right, unlike _anyone_ in the entire galaxy _ever_ looked at him, it froze the words on his tongue. 

At the back of his mind, he knew they would reach Snoke any second now and he ought to concort some concrete intent about what he was going to do. But as they stared into each other’s familiar eyes for what must be an eternity, the thoughts never came, and then ceased completely when they unknowingly drew too close and then, wonders of wonders…

  
  


She _kissed_ him.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments or come yell at me on Tumblr at and-i-am-ironman.
> 
> I'll try and update daily, and if anyone is interested in beta-ing this fic, well, shoot me a message on Tumblr.
> 
> The Last Jedi wasn't that bad, but we really should have gotten that kiss...not just because in the PT and OT our main ship did it, but also we would canonically get one mutual 'I love you' from these space babies by the end of tros! 
> 
> However, the kiss is just the beginning of everythingI want to fix in the ST.


End file.
